


your eyes looked like coming home

by wanderinglilly



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - High School Reunion, older!adrienette, this is what happens when you leave me unsupervised for .2 seconds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 20:06:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6673747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderinglilly/pseuds/wanderinglilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien and Marinette, ten years later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	your eyes looked like coming home

**Author's Note:**

> honestly i don't even know but i do know that i am overall content with this (though i feel it's a little off by the end)
> 
> i hope you guys like it
> 
> this is a super mega ultra belated birthday gift to my babe andrea whose birthday was a while ago and it flew over me bc i am not a good person

He can’t stop staring at her.

Which is a problem, because every time he so much as catches a glimpse of the navy blue skirt of her dress, Nino’s words play themselves over in his head, taunting him about his past ten years of obliviousness.

Look, he and Marinette started on the wrong foot, okay? How was he supposed to know that she didn’t actually dislike him, but had a crush on him?

He wasn’t, period.

But the gir- the woman who’s wildly gesticulating as she talks about something with Mlle. Bustier isn’t the Marinette that smiles bashfully at him in his memories; there’s something about her, about the way she holds herself, that’s changed. Eyeing her less subtly, Adrien finds that the room seems somehow smaller around her, like Marinette is too much to contain anymore.

The thought stretches his lips in a dopey grin, and even though it’s been seven years since the last time he saw Plagg, the lingering bad luck (or perhaps his own distraction) causes him to spill a little of his drink on his -thankfully black- shirt. It’s then that he manages to tear his gaze away from his old classmate to embarrassedly go find a napkin.

* * *

 

Later, as he’s trying desperately to get away from Chloe, Adrien finds himself in the _collège_ ’s courtyard. More surprisingly, he finds Marinette is there too, sitting alone on one of the benches with her back to him, staring at the sky.

“Fancy meeting you here.” He says.

He sits down just in time to witness her give a little jump before turning towards him, a frown distorting her usually soft features.

“Adrien!” she exclaims in a refreshingly scolding tone. He can’t hide his delight, so he offers a cocky grin and watches as she glares for a moment then smiles, shaking her head in amusement. “What are you doing here?”

“Honestly? Hiding from Chloe.”

Marinette snorts. One of her hands leans on the bench, the other holds her drink and she throws her head forward so her hair will hide the snickers that Adrien can hear perfectly. He’s about to make a comment then thinks better of it, afraid to tease away the easy demeanor with which Marinette has regarded him all evening.

“Can’t blame you there.” Marinette says.

It’s quiet after that, but not the kind of stifling, uncomfortable silence that Adrien is so used to getting around Marinette. It’s almost comfortable. At least, it is for her, because Adrien is busy replaying his previous conversation with Nino in his head and all he can hear is _‘she was head over heels for you! It was embarrassing, honestly.’_ And, because he’s clearly not a smart person and should never be left alone without adult supervision, he blurts out:

“Nino says you had a crush on me when we were classmates.”

Marinette turns pale and then bright pink in a rapid succession. Inside his head, there’s a bunch of smaller versions of himself yelling “ABORT! ABORT!” but it’s too late to back down now. And anyway, he’s been wanting to confront her about it all evening, so he waits patiently (and maybe a little eagerly) as she takes a long gulp of her drink before daring to look at him.

“Nino should mind _his own_ business.” Marinette replies, diverting her eyes to glare at her drink. Adrien is worried he might have upset her, but her gaze softens soon enough and her tone is a little sweeter when she continues. “B-but I did have a crush on you, Adrien. I-it was kind of embarrassing.”

“Oh.”

Adrien pinks too, though he has no idea why. Because of his modeling career, this is hardly the first time a girl admits to having (or having had) an interest in him, but coming from Marinette it seems more significant for some reason. She’s not looking at him, so Adrien clears his throat in an attempt to retrieve her attention.

“Do you want me to tell you something embarrassing about me so we’ll be even?” he offers.

Marinette looks up, pretty blue eyes wide with curiosity, and Adrien wonders that he never noticed her crush before. They could have worked, he thinks, if it hadn’t been for-

“You?” she asks, amusement coloring her voice. When he works up the nerve to look at her, she’s got an eyebrow raised. The expression is so unfamiliar to him he almost can’t believe this is the same girl who said “let’s touch in keep” the last time he saw her. “Are you telling me that _Adrien Agreste_ has done things to be embarrassed about?”

Adrien pouts. “Well, not in front of my father.”

He’s too old to be doing this, he knows it, but Marinette’s laugh is impossibly intoxicating and maybe if he’d known that it would make him smile the way it’s doing right now he would have tried harder to _touch in keep_ with her, to see her bloom into this amazing woman sitting beside him. By the time her laughter dies down, Adrien has to admit he’s slightly drunk even though his beer is mostly untouched.

“Let’s hear it then.”

Adrien mutters something out, but his words are too unintelligible for Marinette to understand. She asks him to repeat himself.

“I um,” he starts, looking down to his shoes and trying to calm his erratic heart. Seven years, and the mere thought of his Lady still manages to turn him into a blushing mess. “I had a, ah, a crush on Ladybug.”

He waits for the teasing to come, but it never does, and when he looks up Marinette is staring right at him, eyes wide as saucers. “Y-you did?”

“Yeah, she was my desktop background for a long time.” He admits, hand reaching up to scratch at the back of his neck in nervousness. Marinette doesn’t relax the way he expected her to. if anything, she seems even tenser than before, and he watches as she finishes what’s left of her drink in one gulp.

“That’s not embarrassing at all.” She deadpans. “ _Everyone_ had a crush on Ladybug.”

Adrien senses something weird just happened, but he’s glad she’s not as tense anymore, and he takes the opportunity to lighten the mood as it comes.

“Hey! That’s not true, Mylène and Ivan didn’t!”

“Yeah well, but those two were in love with each other since _before_ Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up.”

* * *

 

After that, conversation between them flows easily, their topics ranging from Ivan and Mylène’s upcoming wedding to their lives after high school ended. Marinette learns that Adrien didn’t study physics as was his _collège_ dream, instead he got a degree in Merchandising and now runs the publicity for his father’s brand.

“It’s not ideal.” He says, taking a gulp of his third drink of the evening. “I definitely thought I’d be somewhere else. But I like my job and my coworkers, and I’ve gotten to know a lot of awesome places and awesome people.”

His face lights up when he speaks about it, reminding Marinette of that time the three of them -her, Alya and Nino- took Adrien to an arcade for the first time and showed him the Dance Dance Revolution game. She’s glad he still gets to experience that kind of happiness after all the time he spent alone in his youth.

Then it’s Adrien’s turn to listen as she tells him about Fashion University, about the long study hours and the killer projects and internships. His eyes never stray away from her while she talks, though they do widen when he hears about the lack of job offers by the time she graduated.

“That’s ludicrous.” Adrien declares, a scowl setting on his face. “You’re one of the most talented designers I know, and I work with many of them.”

“Maybe they were jealous.” She shrugs, taking a swig of her drink. In the moment, not getting any offers hurt her and made her doubt herself, but the years have passed and Marinette has learned better than to think herself talentless, has learned not to dwell on what wasn’t and focus on what she can do with what she has. “Anyway, after that I worked for my parents for a bit, did a lot of commissions and saved enough to rent a local in another district not too far away. I have my own boutique now.” She smiles. “It’s not ideal,” she quotes, “but I’m happy.”

Adrien doesn’t say anything, but the intense way he’s looking at her is making her stomach feel queasy. Just to do something, Marinette raises her glass to her lips once again, and she notes that she’s leaning farther away from sobriety with each sip. Maybe it’s the alcohol that’s waking old Marinette up, maybe it’s the prolonged exposition to copious amounts of Adrien Agreste; either way, she is too happy to finally be able to have a real conversation with him to let her old nerves incapacitate her.

“Marinette?” he calls. There’s something familiar in his voice, as well as a bit of a slur (she’s not the only one affected by the alcohol), and it’s entirely too alluring.

“Yes, Adrien?”

“You’re different.” Adrien states, smiling. Marinette wants to tell him that he’s wrong, that he’s merely seeing the girl he never got to know, but that would be a lie.

It took three years of being Ladybug, ten of being friends with Alya, and a lot of willpower -but at twenty-five, Marinette has finally gained the confidence that her teenaged self so sorely lacked. It seems a small detail, but it has greatly changed everything about herself for the better.

Because there’s really nothing she can say about it, she nods in accordance. She wishes Tikki were here to give her advice and encouragement, but the kwami is long gone and she struggles to make her own observation.

“You’re not.” Her reply seems to surprise Adrien, if the way his eyes widen is anything to go by. Marinette goes on before he can protest about it. “I mean, yeah, you don’t look fifteen anymore but other than that you’re still the same.” She blushes. “You’re still very k-kind, and nice and funny, and going out of your way to talk to me even though I was a dick to you when we first met.”

She’s only a bit remorseful when her words cause him to splutter something along the lines of “you were my first friend”, and they go back to lighter topics with matching knowing smiles.

* * *

 

“…you’re pulling my leg!”

“I swear to god, I’m being totally honest.”

It’s hard to believe someone whose words are slurred by alcohol. Adrien and Marinette lay down side by side on the park, having snuck out of the party some time ago. She’s laying on her back, hands on her stomach as she looks up at the sky; Adrien, for his part, is on his side, facing Marinette with an incredulous stare.

“You and Kim?” he repeats, grimacing a bit. The idea of Marinette and someone else just seems… _off_. Wrong, somehow. “But he’s so…”

“Boisterous?” she offers. She’s still not looking at him, and it irritates him a little. “I know, but he’s a good person. And -well, one of my best friends used to be very boisterous too. I used to think it was annoying, but now I kind of miss it.”

Adrien wonders whom she’s talking about -but then, he also wonders how on earth Marinette dated _Kim_. “Why did you guys break up?”

She doesn’t answer right away, which is a problem because every second she’s quiet makes Adrien dread more the answer. _This is ridiculous_ , he thinks, _I’m a grown man I’m not jealous of someone I wasn’t even in contact with until today_.

(but he is)

“We wanted different things.” Is what she settles for, waving one of her hands in the air as she speaks. “I’d just opened the boutique and he was giving Olympic athletics a last shot; not to mention Alix had just gotten back in town.” She sighs. “It wasn’t right. We’re still friends though.”

Adrien hums. Scooting closer, he taps her on the shoulder to get her attention.

“D’you think I had a chance with Ladybug?” his tone is serious, but his inebriation makes his words blur together and maybe that, coupled with the absurdity of the question, is what makes Marinette snort right after he asks. There’s something about the way her nose scrunches up when she does it that makes Adrien want to reach out and smooth the skin back into place.

Turning on her side to face him, Marinette’s voice is oddly enigmatic as she replies: “Trust me Adrien, if anyone had a chance with Ladybug, that was you.”

He hums, satisfied with the answer, then they fall into silence. Adrien lets himself lay on his back, a question burning on the tip of his tongue. He’s only been around her again for a few hours, but Adrien is high on Marinette’s company, and he doesn’t want this to be the last time he sees her in another ten years. In fact, he wants to be seeing her a lot more. He already feels like an idiot for not having really _seen_ her all those years ago, he’s not about to let her go now that he has the chance.

“Marinette?” he calls. When he looks at her, he notices her eyes are closed, and he takes the chance to face her again and scoot a little closer as he gathers his courage.

“Yes?”

“Do you still have a crush on me?”

His heart is beating frantically; meanwhile, Marinette’s eyes shot open at the same time her cheeks turn bright pink. This expression he does remember, and he dares hope just a little bit. One of her hands darts out to gesture wildly as she struggles to form a coherent response. Adrien stops her by taking a hold of her flying hand.

“Because I may have a bit of a crush on you.”

Marinette’s face is the perfect example of surprise for a minute, mouth open in a perfect ‘o’, until her lips stretch to form a dopey smile that matches his own.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Encouraged by this, Adrien starts leaning in, gaze focused on that pretty pink mouth of hers. There’s no Chloe to barge in and interrupt right now, so he takes his time to close the distance between them. He takes the chance to admire the vibrant blue of her eyes, her rosy cheeks, the elegant arch of her nose. _She really is very beautiful_ , is the thought that crosses his mind.

“Adrien?” He hums in acknowledgement. By now he’s too focused on her lips to offer a proper answer. “I don’t want to regret this.”

Her voice trembles with vulnerability, even though she’s just as focused on his lips as he is on hers. It rather reminds him of the Marinette he used to know. Letting go of her hand, he strokes her cheek in what he hopes is a comforting gesture.

“I promise you won’t.” And then softly, almost as an afterthought, he pulls her in for a kiss.

* * *

 

“Do you have a date for Ivan and Mylène’s wedding?” he asks as he walks her to her parent’s place at three in the morning.

“That depends.” She says with amusement. Adrien raises a questioning eyebrow. It’s late and they both are exhausted by the events of the night, but her words sound like a challenge and he’s kind of a sore loser. “On whether you’re asking me to be yours.”

For some reason, it feels like she’s not just talking about the wedding.

(he’s _delighted_ )

“ _Are_ you asking?” she pushes.

He pulls her in for a kiss in lieu of an answer.

**Author's Note:**

> there are some things i would like to say:
> 
> -yes i have a kiminette agenda and yes i'm pushing it down ur throats sorry not sorry  
> -neither adrien nor marinette have dream jobs in this fic because real life doesn't work that way but that doesn't mean that people have to be unhappy with what they have.  
> -the second part is mylene and ivan's wedding cause im trash  
> -thoughts, comments, cat puns, moans over the hiatus and more are welcome either here on a comment or on my [tumblr](http://chatnoirslady.tumblr.com)


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